Tuesday 25 May 2010

Sunny California, another couple of days in paradise

When Tyler left Klaus sent Eddie ahead with the video camera to get some footage of us while driving. We passed Eddie and assumed he would catch up soon. We started to wonder what was going on when we hadn’t seen him a half our later so we stopped in old mining town called Shoshone and had lunch. Still no Eddie, so we just moved on a without Eddie and the video camera.

We soon approached Death Valley. It was somewhat special to see a salt flat for the first time and quite scenic. This time of the year it was still snow on the mountains and fairly hot in the valley which is like 30 meters below sea level and the lowest point on the western hemisphere so it was a nice experience, though nothing extremely spectacular.

Gas was expensive in the valley so we had fueled up in advance, and my calculations was that with filling both jerry cans and the tanks we could just make it out again, and I was right. We would have made it out again if it wasn’t for the fact that we lost each other ten odd miles before the gas station. At this point of time both of us had gas enough left for maybe fifteen miles, which was quickly consumed chasing each other down. A bit after it was dark I got a very kind American do drive me to the gas station to get gas.

When the bike was filled up I went to the gas station and waited for Klaus there. After an hour or two I gave up and found a motel. Waited another hour and went to bed, and five minutes later Klaus knocked on the door. I had written him off for the night, so it was nice to see him again. He had gotten some shining polish tourists to drive him to a town where he got a few liters from an old chap, and then heard from some bypassing people that I was at a gas station. When he got there I was gone, so he assumed I had went to the closest motel. Good thinking and some good luck after all.

Next day we headed further west into sunny California, which turned out to be rainy and cold. Over mountain pass before Bakersfield it was heavy rain, and cold enough to make smoke when breathing. Just great, exactly what we needed. In Bakersfield we checked mail and directions to the Moto Guzzi couple Jamelia and Dave in Visalia some miles further north which had invited us.

The heavy rain stopped, but isn’t it rain in one way then it’s in other ways. Shit comes in a lot of wrappings. It didn’t take long time before I heard a sound that could be only one thing, an unhappy final drive. Right as rain, the cover bolts on the final drive had come loose despite they were loctited. Easy fix along the highway, but a mystery how it happened.

A half hour later something felt odd with the chassis. The sidecar clamps were still sitting tight. The fork and frame seemed ok. But the front wheel didn’t. The bearing had eaten up the bearing surface. The temporary fix was to drink a can of coke, cut the can into strips and shim up the bearing.

Back on the road again the heavy rain started again. Just before the exit to Visalia I stopped at the road side to wait for Klaus that bypassed me soon. When I took off again I didn’t see Klaus, so I took off the exit and waited for a while, but no Klaus showed up. I went to a gas station and called Jamelia that picked me up. We mailed Klaus her phone number and took her car and looked for him, and after a couple of hours he called from a motel. Two cases like this in two days made us consider changing the routines.

We hung out a couple of days awaiting better weather, depressed from the last couple of day’s incidents. Jamelia and Dave were great hosts and finally when we left the sun was shining again and everybody agreed it would be a nice trip to Los Angeles.

Tormod



Saltlake in Deaf Valley, the most quiet place in the US&A

Elevation sea level

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A wheel bearing ate up the hub. Field modification by making shims of a Coke can



Dave in Visalia. Dave and Jamilah was some really great people, unfortunately I was so destoyd by the rain that I didn't get any pics of both of them. Sorry Jamilah!

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